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- dbavaria, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"If you really want to "support the artist," attend a concert."
I like that, I think I'll use that from now on. It is true though, I don't buy cds but atleast I support them through concerts. - lenier, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0and buy a t-shirt while you are there.
- HungryMedia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think it's a mistake to categorically not buy CDs for this reason though. Many artists (myself included) produce their CDs independently of a label and rely on CDs for their bread and butter.
War-N - Hungry Lucy
www.hungrylucy.com - Gorbash, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is talking about RIAA label musicians. I roll around every time I see Lars Ulrich saying how is losing money because there is music piracy. Sorry you couldn't buy that third masarati Lars, maybe Santa will bring it for Christmas.
- Jaesin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Here is something along these lines
http://www.negativland.com/albini.html - stukdog, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Alright, I like to support the artist as much as the next guy does...but believe it or not, the record company does do some work in promoting and producing so they do deserve to make some money off of the deal.
- riceklown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Are you saying that the artists sit on their butt all day long? Some do (the stereotypical 80's hair band comes to mind).... MOST don't, and the "average" artist (not Britney and Jessica) makes the least amount of money out of the entire ordeal.
- toekneebullard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yeah, live shows is pretty much the only way artists make decent coin. They get pretty much everything over the cost of the actual tour. That is, if they have performance rights of their own songs...which some don't.
- 5blocksfree, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1>>I think it's a mistake to categorically not buy CDs for this reason though. Many artists (myself included) produce their CDs independently of a label and rely on CDs for their bread and butter.
More power to you - this is EXACTLY what other artist should be doing, so that the middle man(RIAA) can be ditched altogether. If they aren't willing fortify the integrity of the creative process, it makes me wonder if they're after music, or just money. - Nobi-Wan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1When someone without a high school education (I'm looking at you Billie Joe Armstrong) can make more money than a doctor that saves lives or a teacher that educates kids...there's something wrong.
- fletcher_SS, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0me and my father run a media replication brokerage firm and a replicated not duplicated retail-ready unit is about $.90 from us...we havent bothered asking the plants what their margins are but we can only imagine. everytime you buy a cd remember the $14 mark-up once it hits the shelf.
- WonkoTheSane, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The RIAA has two purposes one is to distribute music (ie CDs) and the other is to promote music (ie buy radio time).
Music distribution has become very cheap (that's why P2P works), and radio has become less important for music promotion. Also indie bands would be able to better promote their music the RIAA did not exists. This is because the RIAA pays huge sums of money to get music on the radio, and the DJs have very little say into what they play.
Does the RIAA still serve a purpose? yes i think so but it's role is diminishing rapidly and they refuse to accept it, so instead they sue sue sue.
Shameless self promotion:
www.scruffydan.com
p2p does not hurt artists, it hurts record labels, and that's OK by me.
the latest TWiT episode talks about this a little.
also read this for more info http://www.negativland.com/albini.html - WonkoTheSane, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1thats better
The RIAA has two purposes one is to distribute music (ie CDs) and the other is to promote music (ie buy radio time).
Music distribution has become very cheap (that's why P2P works), and radio has become less important for music promotion. Also indie bands would be able to better promote their music the RIAA did not exists. This is because the RIAA pays huge sums of money to get music on the radio, and the DJs have very little say into what they play.
Does the RIAA still serve a purpose? yes i think so but it's role is diminishing rapidly and they refuse to accept it, so instead they sue sue sue.
p2p does not hurt artists, it hurts record labels, and that's OK by me.
the latest TWiT episode talks about this a little.
also read this for more info http://www.negativland.com/albini.html
Shameless self promotion:
http://www.scruffydan.com - d00mster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The Steve Albini piece linked to by jaesin above is a classic and originally appeared in the June 1994 issue of punk fanzine MAXIMUMROCKNROLL, which is interesting as it shows this system was a mature one-sided moola machine way before p2p really took off. The entire issue, which was focused on major labels, is available here:
http://www.arancidamoeba.com/mrr/ - joe_mama, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Still, people only wants to pay for physical object, most people don't consider mp3 worth paying for. I doubt iTune will make much money, and if you take out the DRM, iTune won't make any money.
- shakin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Alright, I like to support the artist as much as the next guy does...but believe it or not, the record company does do some work in promoting and producing so they do deserve to make some money off of the deal."
Read the Albini piece before you say that. The labels aren't making "some" money, they are making "all" the money. - funderbolt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@Nobiwan
>> When someone without a high school education (I'm looking at you Billie Joe Armstrong) can make more money than a doctor that saves lives or a teacher that educates kids...there's something wrong.
When a college dropout is the richest man in the world.. there's something wrong.. This is waaay off topic. It's when talented people can't make a living off of what they love (music), something is wrong. - addisonj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The current system of promoting/funding/distrubuting albums worked great... back in the 1970's... the fact is, is that the radio is a dieing medium, unless you want to listen to only 50 Cent and Jessica Simpson, more music lovers find their music from world of mouth, concert promotions, and randomly running across groups on p2p networks and sites like myspace and purevolume. So the promotion part of record labels is really getting ridiculous.
Also the cost of recording, back in the 70's and 80's before cheap digital mediums and tapes, the cost of just all the tracks was tremoundous, in the 15,000+ range, now with independent studios and album can be produced for 1/2 that figure, and about 8,000 including the time of a talented producer. Digital recording (though some would argue that there is loss of quality, but i think that loss of quality is getting smaller and smaller) is sooo much cheaper, and in todays world... there is no reason a band needs 250,000 dollars to record an album unless they want to have some famous producer who makes an ungodly amunt of money from the artists.
The RIAA and many of the labels involved with it (i will not say all, because there are a few which aren't money sucking bastards) are trying to continue to use a pricing model from 30 years ago. Its time that 1) the major labels drastically change how they do business (never going to happen) 2) or artists learn that getting signed is not a ticket to success and in fact, a online distrubution model (such as the new independent feature of ITunes) and touring are the real way to make money.
Personally, I have been semi-working on a project i have wanted to do for a while, and after thinking about it, I would release much of the finished album online for free and make the money through touring and merch.
Addison - fletcher_SS, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Sorry fletcher, but that is just idiotic. Are you implying that the ONLY cost of bringing customers a music CD is what it costs you to make them?"
yeah i felt stupid after submitting considering...happy hour sometimes gets the best of you. its usually the reaction i get from people when i let them know how much the manufacturing cost is. - rerun, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1For the last decade or so, since I spent 3 years working in a college nightclub, I've bought 100% of my CDs from bands at their shows. Not only is it cheaper (most are still at $10), but the kind of artists that sell their own CDs at their shows are usually the ones who get $7 or $8 out of each sale.
Gotta agree with addisoni, record company promotion is not targeting much of the population. There will always be those kids who have to listen to the really popular bands. But you could argue that they'd be around (and probably sound much better) even without the major label promotions at this point. The popular kids would find someone great on p2p sites, the hangers-on would start listening, radio DJs would get ACTUAL REQUESTS for those songs and it would all still work. The difference is, people who do the work would be the ones getting paid. - redivider, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"I think it's a mistake to categorically not buy CDs for this reason though. Many artists (myself included) produce their CDs independently of a label and rely on CDs for their bread and butter."
Amen to that. People have to take the time to find out what kind of label (if any) the artist is working with before they decide that buying a CD won't actually help.
In my case, the CD sales are everything, and we actually make money doing it. And even if you're talking about major label artists... you can only take it so far. If an new artist who signed a 500k dollar deal sells no albums, they're not gonna have very many shows for you to go to. It's one thing for an established artist who can survive on touring, but it takes album sales to convince a label to support you on the road until you can afford to do it on your own. This is why there are so many young bands getting signed and dropped before you even know who they are. - dclowd9901, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I've been saying this same thing for years. I'm glad people are finally realizing it. So don't give me an evil eye when I tell you I downloaded a cd, or I"ll kick you in the ovaries.
- Nodnetni, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Ok this might just really dumb, but why doesnt Apple just start a record company? It would cut out a major middleman and sent, artist can get more money per song.
- millmaster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I was watching tv last year(a round table show about music piracy at that) and a canadian artist danko jones who has moderate success in canada told his fans to steal his music as much and as often as they wanted, then said "if u like it buy a ticket come down for the show, maybe buy a shirt and a poster and have a good time, thats the only way i make money"
Bottom line go to a show get drunk and rock out, even if u buy the cheapest ticket avaialable and dont go ur still supporting the artist! - L.Jenkins, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The RIAA's system for distributing music and compensating their artists is outdated and deserves to be crushed out of existence. I haven't gone to a record store since like 1999, and I don't care to fund an industry that puts the majority of its investing power into cranking out Britney Spears albums and getting Mike JOnes played in near-constant rotation on the radio.
Instead of adapting to the new digital music technologies when they arose, they tried to squash them out with their lawyers. As if they could make a file format like .mp3 illegal because it interfered with their already ridiculous profits (how many fancy cars does Ludacris really deserve anyway? It's not like he's curing cancer or something).
I hope the RIAA and all it's lawsuits falls on its face and gets lost in a swing towards a new music distribution and production system, so we can see a shift towards fewer Ashlee Simpsons and more innovative new music.
~ rant - lmdean, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0For the book length version of the story, see _Confessions of A Record Producer_ by Moses Avalon: (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0879306602/). My favorite quote from the book: "Having a recording contract is like having a credit card at 60% interest."
- joe_mama, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2When an actor/actress gets 20 million dollar per movie, people bitching saying actors/actresses are too rich. When singer gets paid 10000 - 20000 dollar per album, people bitching saying the artist aren't compensated enough. You simply can't please everyone.
- stix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i just like music.
i like
i buy
end of - selwyn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0and those who cannot go to the concerts for geographical issues?
never get to support them? :P - ChorusLineA1QMS, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Support the artist by positively blogging about them. ;)
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